A Day of Hiking in Sedona, AZ

We were staying in Flagstaff and decided to take a day trip to Sedona to do some hiking.  We were so glad that we did.  While Flagstaff is a cute town it wasn't exactly as great as we thought it would be.  The drive a lone from Flagstaff to Sedona was beyond words.  I'm going to let the pictures do the talking for me in this post.  

We had to ditch our shoes and cross a creek in order to get to the other side of the trail.  Oh that water was cold!

The other side of Cathedral Rock.

Getting Closer to Cathedral Rock.

At the Base.

Little Hikers.

View from Cathedral Rock.

Simply Breathtaking.  

Santa Fe, New Mexico 2014

After talking to a few people about New Mexico we decided to bypass Albuquerque and head straight for Santa Fe.  We are so glad we decided to drive a little further north to see this historical town.  We parked the camper in a nice campground that allowed us to walked into downtown.  Once downtown we didn't waste a second diving into the local food, shops and gorgeous old churches.

First stop for lunch was Tomasita's for the local delicacy of green chilies. It was recommended that we have the green chili fries, and oh they did not disappoint.  They were delish!  

A taste of the downtown architecture. 

After lunch we bobbed into several historical churches to stay out of the rain.  The were all lovely.  Even Jamie agreed that they were fascinating.  Usually I have to drag him through these sort of things. 

Touching sculpture on one of the church walls.

The doorway to one of the churches we toured.

One incredibly special church that we toured was Loretto Chapel.  FYI there is a fee of $3.00 to enter the chapel.  It is small but it is worth it.  

The Rosary Tree in front of Loretto Chapel.

The Miraculous Staircase. 

Loretto used to be a girls school.  The little chapel was built without a staircase to the choir loft.  There wasn't much room to put a staircase.  The chapel was so small that putting in a normal staircase would wipe out a few rows of pews.  One day a carpenter dropped in and said he could build the staircase.  Here is the story http://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase.html.  It is worth reading.

Austin TX 2014

After a brief stop in Dallas we headed to Austin, TX.  Jamie works at Austin City Limits every year.  This years headliners were Outkast, Pearl Jam, Calvin Harris, Eminem, and Lorde to name a few.  We always have a great time at this festival and really enjoy the city of Austin.

The boys playing drums in Austin Kiddie Limits

We stay at Zilker Park which has a lot of great activities within the park.  There is a natural swimming pool that is filled from an underground spring.  Its average yearly temp is 68 degrees.  Across from the swimming area is a train that takes you on a ride throughout the park.  Miles loves to ride every year several times.  Its 2.00 a ride. If you choose to get some exercise you can walk/run the running path that surrounds the Colorado River.  There are all kinds of kayaks, canoes, and stand up paddle boarders in the river.

Our favorite Park activity was to walk to the Nature preserve.  It is free to enter and right now they are featuring the Robot Zoo.  There are robotic bug and animals that you can interact with.  You are able to see how a frog can shoot its tongue to catch to catch a bug, or climb a wall and see literally what it is like to be a fly on the wall.  After leaving the Robot Zoo we headed back to the dinosaur fossil dig.  There are 4 large sand pits with dinosaur fossils and all the tools you need to uncover them.

Miles digging for fossils at the Nature Preserve.

Riding the train through Zilker Park

This year while Jamie was loading out my parents came to visit.  We took them to a lot of our favorite places to eat and this year we tried something new.  We went to Jack Allen's.  It is a farm to table restaurants and it is amazing.  We decided to just order several appetizers because we wanted to try several things.  We loved everything!  Here are some must haves: House Made Pimiento cheese, BLT Sliders (with pork belly), Smashed Guacamole with pumpkin seeds, and Smoked Beef Rib Quesadilla.

Avacado Margarita

We also had a great day at the Thinkery which is Austin's Children's Museum.  Its one of the best that I've been too.  They have an entire water room that they provide each child with a smock and a pair of crocks, a kitchen area to shop and weigh food, an area just for infants in the theme of a spring garden, and a room where you can build your own airplane and then launch it with an air compressor.  There was so much more but those were a few of our highlights.

Austin is up there as one of my favorite US cities.  There is so much to do with or without kids.  If you like the outdoors, Tex Mex and music then Austin is a city you should check out.  I don't think you will be disappointed.

 Here are a few more pictures of our
stay in Austin:

The Golden Potty (only 6 people get to use it at the festival)

Miles in front of one of Jamie's stages

Jonah Bear outside of the camper backstage

Miles at the Austin Zoo

Here's What's Cooking...

This is what I'm working with

 I have made it to rule not to deprive my family of good meals just because my kitchen has decreased in size significantly.  You can still have a "gourmet" (ha) meal on a camper.  You just have to modify things a bit.  Instead of using one dish to cook your casserole in use two.  That way it fits in your tiny oven all at once, or sometimes I will just cut the recipe in half since I don't have a lot of room in my fridge for leftovers and certainly not a lot of room in my freezer to freeze a meal for later.  If there are any leftovers they usually have to be eaten by lunch the next day.

The thing I hate most of all is throwing away food.  So I usually only grocery shop for two or three days at a time.  It makes shopping my getaway from the kids and I've really started to enjoy just taking my time and being smart about ingredients and comparing prices.

So here are a few of the meals I've cooked lately...

Pioneer Woman's Comfort Meatballs

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/bbq-meatballs-comfort-food-to-the-max/

 

I made mashed potatoes to go along with the meatballs.  I just boiled some diced red potatoes and added heavy cream, salt and pepper, and fresh garlic.  

100 Days of Real Food Crock Pot Chicken

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/02/25/recipe-the-best-whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/

 

The best thing about this deliciously EASY recipe is that I use the leftovers for several other meals.  The next day we made chicken quesadillas and sometimes I'll make curry chicken salad for lunches.  The crock pot can be your best friend on a camper.  Most of the time you can make a one pot meal with very little mess and if you have kids you can make the meal during nap time and there is no cooking at dinner time in a small kitchen with kids running around.  It can get dangerous.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares

Here is one example of modifying your dish.  I used an 8 x 8 instead of a 9 x 13 so it needed to cook a little longer.

Plano Balloon Festival 2014

Plano Balloon Festival

We had a blast tonight at the Plano Balloon Festival.  It was a last minute decision and we know that at least Miles was happy about that decision.  I was happy too.  It brought back memories of the balloon festival in Battle Creek, MI that I went to as kid.  I took a lot of pictures and they were all so good.  So here is your warning...there are a lot of pictures in this post.

In case you are in the area and you want to check it out this weekend here are the particulars:
$10.00 Parking and $5.00 admission fee.  There are a lot of food vendors so you won't go hungry.  The entertainment was decent as well.  The best part was the kids area.  You could get a wristband for $20.00 or $2.00/ride.  If you don't want to pay for rides then there is a free kids zone with lots of arts and crafts and free tattoos.

The night kicked off with sky divers carrying the American flag and of course the Texas state flag. 

The boys enjoying themselves. 

So excited!

He was pouting because he didn't want his picture taken anymore. 

All of the colors were so amazing.

So excited about the ladybug tattoo.

While the cat was away the mouse played with his toy.  

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BURN!

Cape Cod Part II

Miles takes the wheel.

When we found out that we would not be able to take the boat to Nantucket we had a very upset 3 year old boy who was counting on a boat ride that day.  So we had to think fast and decided that all of the Duck Boat Tours driving by seemed really fun.  So we gave them a call and were able to walk over to their place on Main Street and hop right on a boat.

Miles even got to drive the boat for a bit.  The captain and Tour Guide were very entertaining and accommodating to children.   

We hopped on the Duck Boat Tour in the town of Hyannis.  As I mentioned previously this was where JFK and his entire family spent a lot of time.  There is now a John F Kennedy museum in the middle of town that only cost a few dollars to walk through.  We really enjoyed walking through the town.  We had lunch and ducked in and out of a few shops. 

Our first day exploring the Cape we decided to stop and go to the beach for a little while.  We learned a very valuable lesson.  You don't just park and go to the public beach for free.  It cost us $25.00 to park. With the beach parking costing a small fortune I expected the beach to be spectacular.  I mean I grew up on the Gulf Coast in Florida where the beaches are gorgeous and you usually park for free.  Boy was I disappointed walking out to a VERY small public beach where the sand wasn't like the powdered sugar sand I'm used to.  Also remember the water is going to be freezing even in the middle of August. 

One of the absolute highlights of our trip was a day at Plymouth Plantation.  We were a little unsure of what it would be like as we had heard Plymouth Rock was more like Plymouth pebble and wasn't worth the trip.  Well we were pleasantly surprised.  We were able to walk around both the Pilgrim's village as well as the Indian's village.  Make sure you get their early so you don't have to wait for a parking spot.  

Miles walking around one of the many Pilgrim gardens.

Each one of the Pilgrim households had its own garden.  These gardens were amazing.  I think the most amazing part was that the Pilgrims who are there role playing actually plant their own gardens from the seeds produced by their own plants.  The Pilgrims were also in each one of their houses cooking lunch while we were there.  There were eggs being boiled over fires, mustard seeds being muddled and fresh bread being buttered.  We truly felt transported back in time.

The view of the Atlantic Ocean was breathtaking.

Over at the Indian village we climbed in a few of their huts and watched as they too made some delicious looking meals.  One Indian woman was making sea bass on a spear over an open fire.  She was also cooking some porridge and cranberry sauce.  

This Indian was telling a story about his ancestors. 

Miles inside one of the large Indian homes. They were telling him how they would rub bear fat on themselves in the winter to stay warm.

The last and most important tip I'd like to make when traveling to the Cape is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER travel anywhere around the cape on Friday and Saturday.  Saturday is the worse.  We made this mistake.  It will take you an hour to go 1 mile.  Most Cape dwellers go to the Cape from Saturday to Saturday.  So not only do you have cars going on the Cape but also coming.  Plan a day in if you are going to be there on Saturday.  

All in all we really did enjoy our trip.  I think I will check it off the bucket list.  I however will not be running back anytime soon.  Once seems to be enough for me.